For Justin Nitschke, trucking is in the blood.
Back in 1947, his grandad Rudi bought himself a 1947 Ford to cart his own sheep and grain bags.
Over three decades later, Justin’s dad followed in his footsteps with a 1966 F600 truck, transporting grain and grapes around the Riverland region of South Australia.
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Now, Justin and his 23-year-old son Bromley are carrying on the family tradition — just with bigger rigs — two 610 Kenworth SAR road trains.
“Back in 1994, I decided to cart stuff,” Justin tells Deals on Wheels.
“Without asking dad about it too much, I hired his truck and took his wine grape customers on, and added to our customers with some farmers.”
Growing up around trucks, Justin has always wanted to work in the transport industry.
“It really runs in the blood — I have uncles and cousins that drive, all throughout Australia.
“I always felt like I wanted get out on the open road!”
The Nitschke family, who cart grain, fertiliser, grapes and “anything that goes on the back of a tipper” used to have a bigger fleet, featuring Volvos and Western stars.
However, they’ve downsized partly due to not being able to find drivers willing to drive long distances.
“It’s hard to find drivers that want to be away in trucks — everyone seems to want to be home at night,” he says.
“It can be stressful to keep things moving and keep everyone happy — probably more stress than it’s worth, unless you want to keep 0getting bigger and bigger, which we didn’t want to do.
“We had five or six Western Stars at one stage, but we’ve cut back to a Kenworth each.”
Though the Nitschke fleet has been reduced, the trucks they have now are extra special to them, with tributes to the family’s proud transport legacy decorating their trailers.
“On the side of the trailer there’s a picture of an old Ford Louisville that was my dad’s and mine, and another Ford dad used to have,” he says.
“We just wanted to have those pictures on there to remind us of our family history.”
Justin’s dad still has his father’s old Ford, which he restored back in the 80s.
“It was in pretty good condition when he got it,” Justin says. “He just repainted it and made it like brand new.
“It’s basically a show truck now and dad uses it to cart stuff around a bit in his retirement.”
Meanwhile Justin’s grandad’s Ford is sitting in a relative’s shed, and he’s hoping to bring that back to life one day.
“We also have a picture of that truck on the side of one of our other trailers,” he says.
“Back in 1957, grandpa changed that truck with a bigger motor, putting a Perkins in it so he could put a flat top on it.
“He would cart wool to Adelaide and bring machinery back, because he had a New Holland and Horwood Bagshaw dealership in Loxton.”
Justin is happy that his son Bromley has taken after the generations before him and hopped behind the wheel of a truck — but even if he wasn’t happy, he says there was no stopping him.
“He always had an interest in trucks — that might have been my fault!” he laughs.
“My wife Candice and I run the business together and he’s doing a good job working for us, we’re proud of him.
“One day he might even buy his own truck or take over the family business, which would be great.”
He hopes that he has been able to pass on some trucking knowledge to his son, just as he learned from his own dad.
“Growing up, I would hear stories from dad about how he did things and I would share my stories with my son too,” he says.
“Dad was always there when something went wrong, when something broke or a truck got bogged.
“He would help come up with a solution and we would sort it out together, so I’m doing the same with Bromley.”
He gave an example from the week before, when they broke an axle while on a run to New South Wales.
“Bromley helped me chain things up and get ourselves out of trouble,” he says.
“Everyone’s bounced off each other over the years.”
Justin acknowledges that transport has changed a lot since his grandfather’s days, but he still enjoys being a part of the industry.
“We’re in the middle of a drought here in SA, so it’s been challenging,” he says.
“But we’re finding work to do, and sometimes it creates some longer-distance work, which is good.
“We do our own little thing here and stay fairly positive.
“We’re looking forward to the 2025/2026 grain season — hopefully it’s better than the last one!”
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